2013 is almost gone. Wow!
We started the month off by attending the Anderson and Cottonwood Wards on the 1st. We're still trying to make our presence known - encouraging YSAs to attend the Singles Branch.
We had a fun night at FHE on the 2nd playing Banana Grams. Kind of like scrabble but a few different rules. We played this with 8.5 X 11 sheets of paper with letters on it. We spelled our words out on the floor. We had good participation.
3rd - Nan is still not feeling very well but is up and going and prepared a Power Point presentation of interesting facts about temples for the Wednesday night institute class.
6th - Took Elder Jones to his follow-up doctor appointment. He is doing much better. His lungs are completely recovered. We had beef stew for Friday forum. Turned out great. We had a heavy snow of about 6 inches, which is very very unusual for Redding. We had intended to attend "Journey to Bethlehem" presented by the Anderson Stake. The heavy snowfall didn't deter us but the many, many cars slipping and sliding all over the streets did. Since it hardly ever snows here and when it does it's not 4-6 inches, the folks here just don't know how to drive in the snow. We got about 4 blocks from our apartment and decided to just turn around and go home. We would go to the performance Saturday.
7th - Barlow family ginger-bread house and dinner at Pam's. All the families in Utah County were there. Pam made all the gingerbread and had the houses put together before everyone got there. Then, just the decorating had to be done. Even the little people decorated houses made of graham crackers. We went to Anderson (about 10 miles from Redding) to attend the Stake presentation of "Journey to Bethlehem." Every other year the Anderson Stake puts on this depiction of the events leading up to the birth of Christ. Attendees go from area to area and listen to live actors tell the various stories associated with Christ's birth. It was very well done - we enjoyed it immensely.
8th - listened to and watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
9th - both of us had our review for final exams in our day classes. They seemed to go quite well. The Branch met at the Sumsions to make ginger bread houses, which turned out to be a lot of fun. Granddaughter Brittnee gave us a great idea for the houses - use frosted mini-wheats for the roofs and stick pretzels to make the sides look like logs.
10th - Went shopping for the Christmas gift we gave to all 42 missionaries in the Redding and Anderson Zones. In a little Christmas sack we put a couple of packets of hot chocolate, a couple of scoops of miniature marshmallows and a peppermint stick, which they would use to stir then sip the hot chocolate through. Turned out really cute.
11th - We both gave our final exams.
12th - Kent went to both the Anderson and Redding Zone meetings and gave out the little hot chocolate gifts. All seemed pleased. Kent also needed to go inspect an apartment Elders moved out of and Sisters moved into in Anderson. We had reports it was "trashed." It was nice for Kent to discover it was not "trashed," just not as clean as the Sisters through it should be. It needed some additional cleaning to the bathroom floors, tub and stool, which the Elders took care of right away. Sisters are now happy.
Also on the 12th - Nan's Thursday class took the final exam. After Kent got back from Anderson, he became quite sick and went home around noon.
13th - Kent was still feeling so badly the next morning he didn't even go to the Institute. Nan and Sister Lowther took care of the last Friday Forum until January. They made waffles with all the trimmings.
14th - Hannah Mikulecky, one of Nan's students, danced in the Redding City Performance Company's Nutcracker at the Cascade Theater. We went to the performance which made it impossible to attend a Senior Luncheon in Sacramento. We discovered there were numerous cast members from the local wards. We personally know several of those families and the Company Director was in the old branch presidency.
15th - Had dinner at the McEuen's. Pat is a member of the branch presidency and we enjoy each others company very much.
17th - Nan had dinner with the Branch presidency wives at Cheesecakes Unlimited. The problems of the world were solved and numerous thoughts on how to improve the YSA Branch were discussed - at length.
18th - It was Nan's turn to catch the flu bug going around. It put her right down and she was still not feeling well through the end of the week. She stayed in bed on the 18th but forced herself up on the 19th and 20th.
19th - The Institute students cooked spaghetti for anyone who was around and made cookies. The cookies were great but it took them a long time to clean up the mess they made in the kitchen.
20th - 1/2 Mission conference was held in Chico about 1 1/2 hours south of us. Nan was still not feeling well but we went down. This was 3 hours of musical numbers and talks. Was nice but with Nan having chills one minute then sweats the next and Kent's concern for her we did not enjoy it as much as we could have.
23rd - Bought a Spirngbok 1000 piece puzzle. This is turning out to be quite a challenge. It's a beautiful picture of several different types of birds sitting on a feeder surrounded by pine needles. Not the wisest choice since the pine needles all look the same.
24th - Christmas Eve - Had dinner with the Lopemans - the other counselor in the Branch presidency. One of their sons and a grandson, his girl friend and her brother were also invited. It was a very nice afternoon and the dinner was wonderful.
25th - Merry Christmas. We made a Breakfast Casserole and quick and easy cinnamon rolls like we use to make when the children were still all at home. Had a very quiet but very nice Christmas day. FaceTimed a few of the kids and talked to the rest. Facetime is almost as good as being there. We found out that Sister Powell and Sister Watters (assigned to the 4th Ward here in Redding) were very ill. Took them some chicken noodle soup, chicken broth, ginger ale, bananas, canned peaches and pears and a few other things to help them mend. Saw them today (the 30th) and they are doing much better. Sister Powell is pretty much recovered and Sister Watters is holding done food but is still very weak.
26th - Took Sisters Neilson and Sister Kimura to lunch at Mary's Pizza Shack. Our initial plan was to take all companionships to lunch during our holiday break but when we saw the bill for just 4 of us, we decided to go to plan B.
30th - Initiated Plan B - Took pizza, fruit, donuts and pop to the stake center and met all the zone there for lunch. This worked out very well. We stayed for a while and visited with everyone and watched them play BBall and dodgeball for a while. All the missionaries in our Zone have Church ipads so it was fun to be with them as they received their weekly emails. They even shared photos sent to them.
Nan went with Vivi McEuen and purchased stuff for the Branch New Year's Eve party.
31st - Went with the McEuen's this afternoon to set up for tonight's party. Pat and Vivi are expecting about 20 YSAs. Hope we don't have too much food left over.
We had a great turnout for the party but still had way too much food. It was interesting to hear the young people say they were having a good time just hanging out, playing games and eating good food. Pat and Vivi had all the fixin's and everyone made their own individualized pizza. There was other finger-food and several sweet treats. Ice cream Sundaes topped off the evening. We all counted down at 10 seconds to midnight and then welcomed 2014.
We look forward to the adventures we will encounter in 2014 and being home again with our family. Happy New Year to all,
